Millions of people who have a serious illness, take medication, or suffer from environmental or drug allergies are at serious risk if they should need medical assistance and are unable to speak for themselves. The simple medical bracelet has been used for some time to provide a warning to emergency medical personnel of some limited information. It can only provide hoever, a very small amount of information.
Other devices, such as the Health Watch described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,290, to Ventimiglia et al, have been suggested to provide emergency medical information. This device, however, suffers from several problems. It is too complex, having a number of “modes” that must be accessed to reach the information needed. It would require a skilled operator to access the information. It is also solely a visual device, in which the information has to be read on a very small screen. There could be many circumstances where it is not possible to read the information, depending on lighting, position, or other factors.
Another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,673, to Mathurin, which is described as an audio controlled and activated wristwatch memory and device. This device, while audio, is used to record meetings, tasks, etc. similar to a handheld recorder. The face of the device is quite complex and the information is input verbally to a recorder. This device is not suitable for Applicant's purposes for several reasons. The emergency medical information contained in Applicant's device is input by a computer. The patient, wearer, completes a form on which he or she sets forth all relevant medical information. That information is then input to a computer which loads the information onto a recordable chip. The information cannot be changed by the patient, and it would be dangerous to allow the patient to record the information and change it if he or she desired. It is also loaded in a computer generated voice, which is much clearer than a person's voice, which may have accent's, etc. Also, Applicant's device is very small, compared to the Manthurin device and easily wearable at all times, because one would not want to be wearing the Manthurin device for any length of time, due to its size.